Liverpool raise 'serious' referee concerns after falling behind Arsenal with Man City loss

Arsenal's Premier League title rivals Liverpool have raised 'significant' referee concerns about Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal in Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.

After Erling Haaland put Pep Guardiola's side in front just before the half hour mark, the Reds thought they had levelled moments later when Virgil van Dijk headed home Mohamed Salah's corner.

However, as Van Dijk reeled off to celebrate with his Liverpool teammates, assistant referee Stuart Burt lifted up his flag and ruled that Andy Robertson was impacting Gianluigi Donnarumma's view while in an offside position. VAR took a closer look at the incident but decided that Burt made the correct call and the goal was disallowed.

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Arne Slot fumed in his post-match press conference and claimed that it was "obvious" the "wrong decision" was made. Several high-profile pundits, including Wayne Rooney, agreed with the Liverpool head coach.

Now, Liverpool Echo have reported that Liverpool have contacted Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) chief Howard Webb to raise 'concerns' about Van Dijk's disallowed goal. It's added that the Reds have told the referees' organisation they do not accept the decision to rule the goal out was made for subjective reasons.

Liverpool believe that the wording of the law is clear and that no elements of the criteria needed to disallow the goal were met so it should have been allowed to stand. The Reds do not feel that Donnarumma's view was impeded by Robertson, who ducked under the header, on the basis he was not in the goalkeeper's line of vision.

If Van Dijk's header was allowed to stand, it would have drawn Liverpool level at 1-1 shortly before half-time. Instead, the Reds went on to lose 3-0, with Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku scoring the second and third for City.

After suffering a fifth defeat in six top-flight matches, Slot's men have dropped to eighth in the Premier League and sit eight points behind runaway leaders Arsenal going into the November international break.

Meanwhile, City have won their last two and have climbed into second place, four points behind the Gunners, who were held to a 2-2 draw at Sunderland in the Saturday evening kick-off.

Mikel Arteta's side came from behind to lead 2-1 in the dying embers at the Stadium of Light as goals from Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard cancelled out Dan Ballard's opener. However, the Gunners could not hold on as Brian Brobbey struck in stoppage-time to salvage a point for the home side.